The ERTE will be extended until September 30th

The ERTE will be extended for at least another four more months, until September 30th, in conditions “very similar to the current ones." This is the intention of the Government who have put forward their proposals today at their first meeting with social partners and representatives of the unions.

In addition, when this date arrives, it will be analyzed and evaluated again to see if it is necessary to extend them again after the summer, since the Government has guaranteed them for as long as necessary so that the economy can recover from this pandemic.

In fact, in the recovery plan sent to Brussels, the Government informs that at the height of the pandemic, 4.1 million workers were in ERTE, and they guarantee that it will continue to apply throughout the year as a "transitional mechanism" until the economy fully recovers. However, they have always been against long extensions, as requested by the social partners, since they defend that it is important to modify it to the needs of each extension, which is why they prefer to extend it for three or four months .

The Executive has not yet made a concrete proposal of what the new conditions of the ERTE will be, but it has advanced to the social security representatives and the Unions that it will take as a reference, what is contained in the agreement currently in force and that they will have "very similar conditions to now”. At the same time the Cessation de Actividad for self-employed people will be reviewed for a similar extension too.

However, it does consider making "some kind of modification" to adapt to the situation that is currently being experienced, although they haven’t yet specified what these changes will be. Thus, today's meeting has been a first contact in which there has not been a text with a specific proposal, something that the Government promised to send over the next few days for a new meeting that will take place next week.

Mari Cruz Vicente, secretary of Trade Union Action of CC OO said: “Today has been an initial meeting to make contact, but the important news is that the ERTE will be maintained, that there will be a new agreement until September 30th and that it is committed to continuing to maintain them as long as necessary, and as long as the pandemic affects the economy.”